What to do when MobileMe is down

Occasionally Apple will need to perform system maintenance or have to deal with an unexpected service interruption. In these cases, there are some primary functions on MobileMe that will most likely be unavailable, as well as some that should still be ope

Occasionally Apple will need to perform system maintenance or have to deal with an unexpected service interruption. In these cases, there are some primary functions on MobileMe that will most likely be unavailable, as well as some that should still be operable.

According to a recent Apple knowledge base article on the subject, when MobileMe displays the following message on the System Status indicator on the MobileMe site, users should take note of operations that can and cannot complete during the downtime:

"MobileMe members may be/are unable to use Find My iPhone, receive automatic new mail notifications (display count on the Mail icon, sound and/or vibration alerts) on their iPhone or iPod Touch, or automatically sync changes to contacts, calendars, and bookmarks between their desktop applications and iPhone or iPod touch."

During the downtime, users will most like not be able to access:

Find My iPhone. When attempting to use Find My iPhone, you will be presented with an error message, preventing searching for your iPhone, displaying a message, remote locking, or remote wiping.

Automatically Sync. Your contacts, calendars, and bookmarks may not sync automatically between your iPhone or iPod Touch and your Mac.

While MobileMe is down, users will be able to access:

New Mail. Even though automatic downloading of messages will be disabled, users can manually update their Inbox. Simply open the Mail application on your iPod Touch or iPhone or click the "Get Mail" button in Mail on your Mac.

Syncing. Though automatic syncing is disabled, you can still choose to manually sync your contacts, calendars, and bookmarks between your Mac and your iPhone or iPod Touch.

The article reminds users that the Status Indicator on the MobileMe Web site (me.com) will provide the absolute latest information on system performance. If you continue to experience issues with MobileMe services after the Status Indicator reports that all systems are back to normal, you can initiate a chat with MobileMe Support.

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Joe is a seasoned Mac veteran with years of experience on the platform. He reports on Macs, iPods, iPhones and anything else Apple sells. He even has worked in Apple retail stores. He's also a creative professional who knows how to use a Mac to get the job done.
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